The present invention is concerned with the provision of smolder-resistant cushion covers of upholstered furniture. A particularly important application of the invention is the provision of aesthetically pleasing structures that prevent ignition or charring of the welt cord and interior batting by a lighted cigarette or the like falling on the cushion.
It is well-known that many a fatal and/or otherwise disastrous fire results from a smoker falling asleep while smoking and his or her lighted cigarette dropping onto the upholstered furniture on which he or she is sitting. Unlike flash fires associated with inflammable clothing, an upholstered furniture fire is normally a slow-developing catastophe which may involve asphyxiation of the smoker by fumes, together with smoke damage or even total loss by fire of the building involved. The problem is a very serious one, and numerous efforts have been made to develop effective flame-retardant barriers or the like. The objective of such conventional flameproofed barriers is generally to prevent ignition of the upholstered furniture during relatively short periods of exposure to open flame. In fact, practically all flameproofed fabrics, e.g. clothing, bed-clothes, bedding, protective uniforms, and the like, are designed for short exposures to open flame, the presumption being that the victim, given sufficient protection from a flash fire, will be able to move away from the source of flame in time to save himself or herself.
However, the cigarette falling from the mouth of a sleeper onto the upholstered furniture poses an entirely different problem from those dealt with in conventional other-than-furniture-upholstery uses of flame-retardant fabrics. Thus, in the usual instance of fire resulting from falling asleep while smoking there is an unusually long exposure of the fabric to the source of fire, the victim is asleep, and there is a large and concentrated source of combustibles exposed in the upholstered furniture covering substrates. It is in the smoldering, fume-producing, and sometimes eventually flaming substrates that the prime hazard most frequently lies.
Many smolder-resistant barrier materials have been developed such as polypropylene spun-bonded fabrics, aluminized materials, fiberglass materials and treated batting, etc. Also fire-resistant polyurethane foams have been developed to prevent ignitions. While many of these materials are successful when tested individually, none seem effective when placed with all the presently usually-used substrates of upholstered furniture coverings. The area most vulnerable to burning is the welt area where many layers of fabric are sewn with the welt allowing it to act as a wick. Also it is the welt area of the cushion where the batting tends to feather out and to be compressed, thereby lessening its value as a smolder-resistant barrier.